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USG Ishimura
The USG Ishimura was named after astrophysicist and inventor of the ShockPoint Drive Hideki Ishimura, the flagship of the Concordance Extraction Corporation (also known as C.E.C.) and the first Planet Cracker-class ship. It was the first vessel of her size to utilize the ShockPoint Drive for large-scale commercial and deep space expeditions. History Design Built in 2446, the Ishimura was hailed as the savior of Earth and the colonies; a symbol of Mankind's innovation. It was created for mining and smelting entire planets and moons. It was also the first ship capable of the "scan and catch technique" for harvesting mineral-rich asteroids using huge gravity tethers. The Ishimura has the ability to lock onto asteroids and pull them into its massive collection bays for smelting. Despite being designed primarily as a mining vessel, the Ishimura also functioned as a medical research vessel. It had a dedicated medical wing, where research into virology, toxins and genetics was conducted. Discovery of the Red Marker At the time the Red Marker was discovered on Aegis VII, the Ishimura was 62 years old. It was still in remarkable shape with much of its equipment upgraded and many sections refitted to take advantage of continuing advances in technology. Despite the long years of service, the Ishimura was still the pride of the C.E.C. fleet along with still being its largest Planet Cracker-class ship. When the C.E.C. learned of Aegis VII Colony's discovery, the Ishimura was dispatched to recover the Marker and transport it back to Earth. Upon arriving at Aegis VII, the Ishimura's commanding officer and a devout Unitologist Captain Matthius gave a no-fly order with the exception that the Marker, all related data and corpses be moved to the ship. Once this was accomplished, the crew of the Ishimura began planet crack operations, the cover put in place to hide their true agenda. Coinciding with the planet crack, the Ishimura briefly lost all contact with the colony. Once contact was re-established, the crew discovered that the entire colony has been slaughtered. Further contact with one of the mining teams revealed nothing of the colony's fate as they were soon killed themselves. Several survivors attempted to reach the Ishimura using the colony's remaining shuttles. After navigating through the debris field created by the planet crack, the shuttles were fired upon by the Ishimura's ADS cannons for violating the no-fly order. Two shuttles successfully reached the Ishimura: The first flown by Colin Barrow crash landed into the hanger bay and the second flown by Gabe Weller crash landed on the hull near the Crew Deck. Infestation Unknown to Barrow, an Infector had boarded his shuttle and infected his wife's corpse. After Barrow was killed and his shuttle crashed, Jennifer Barrow and the Infector escaped into the Ishimura's ventilation system before security could arrive. The Infector made its way to the morgue, where it changed at least twenty corpses into creatures which then made their way into the ship. The crew were attacked by the creatures while on their daily routines. There were only a few reported incidents at first, but word of the danger quickly spread through the ship within a short time. Some men and women had jobs that they were forced to continue despite the obvious danger, in order to keep the ship stabilized, but these stalwart crew members obviously didn't last long, and the ship slowly began to malfunction from nobody monitoring it. It finally became obvious that the entire crew was in danger, as order around the ship vanished. Decks that the creatures did not reach yet holed themselves off and made barricades to hold back the creatures when they came. Unfortunately, most of the decks were caught unprepared, simply leaving easy kills for the Necromorphs and leaving the deck devoid of life. The Bridge, as well as the Medical and Mining decks reportedly held out the longest, with the Medical deck being completely overwhelmed with badly injured survivors, to the point where the medical staff barricaded the injured outside. The injured were killed by Necromorphs, and the creatures eventually breached the barricades and slaughtered the remaining medical staff. The mining deck, where wandering survivors rallied, lasted longer due to the Necromorphs having a hard time breaching the steel doors, but was eventually overrun due to creatures traveling through the vents. The Bridge was the last deck to be overrun. The remaining bridge crew, security, and officers made a last stand with their guns were eventually overwhelmed by Necromorphs bursting through the ventilation shafts. To make matters worse, an unknown force jettisoned the ship's compliment of escape shuttles (likely due to a rogue crew member suffering from the Red Marker's influence), leaving the remaining crew trapped on board their own ship with no way out. As a last desperate resort, Dr. Kyne disengaged the ships engines, causing the ship to begin a slow descent towards the planet in hopes that it would burn up in the atmosphere and kill everything inside. Chief Security Officer Alissa Vincent intercepted him and tried to stabilize the ships engines in a bid to rescue the remaining survivors, but failed and instead sacrificed herself to launch a distress signal into space. ''Kellion's'' arrival It is at this point that the USG Kellion shockpoints in, in response to the Ishimura's distress signal, beginning the events of Dead Space. Many of the areas of the ship are covered in Necromorph biomass or otherwise damaged; resulting in failures in the ship's life support, automated systems, and artificial gravity. Nearly all of the exterior lights are also off due to loss of main power. It becomes clear throughout the game that the Ishimura is beyond repair and is doomed. However, the ship's self-destruct is offline as well as most other ship systems. The only way to scuttle the ship is to disengage the engines and the weight of the tectonic load the Ishimura is carrying will cause it to crash into the planet. Throughout the events of the game trying to survive is the main goal, but to survive Isaac has to repair parts the ship in some levels, demonstrating that while the vessel is a deplorable condition, it may yet be saved. The Ishimura is last seen by Isaac Clarke when he departed towards Aegis VII with the Marker in the Executive Shuttle. Post-Aegis VII Incident After the destruction of Aegis VII, the Ishimura was thrown out of orbit into deep space, (apparently) never to be seen again.[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Space-Retribution-Christopher-Shy/dp/1600108156 Dead Space: Retribution, plot summary] The Earth Government falsified the details of the Ishimura's destruction, claiming that the ship was lost to a terrorist attack. The Ishimura was commemorated by the government and the C.E.C., keeping the public oblivious to the ship's real fate to avoid widespread panic and chaos. [http://deadspace.ea.com/en_us/home#flash/mediaid=beat1posterswf-20100426063325986 DeadSpace 2, Remember the Ishimura] Recovery by the Magpies After Isaac's departure from the Ishimura, it drifted around aimlessly within the Aegis system, but when the Magpies, led by Jessica Li and Stefan Schneider are using a shockring to transport minerals the Ishimura gets caught by its event horizon. It is transported to the Magpie's position, destroying their Nest. They hold it down with gravity tethers and board the Ishimura to salvage it. The planetcracker is in bad shape. It has been bombarded by asteroids destroying entire decks. Oxygen is leaking out and severely depleted, the ship's shockpoint drive is severely damaged and most of the power and artificial gravity is gone due to the damage sustained by the engineering deck. Only emergency power and a few auxiliaries are still functional. Quarantine lock downs are in effect all over the ship and the Corruption has covered almost everything. It is apparently deserted so the Magpies wander freely throughout the ship and attempt to recover any valuable parts. But the calm does not last long. Following the discovery of several shards of the Red Marker on the outside, order collapses. One of the crew, Maylech, assaults Li over the fate of the shards and has to be put in the brig. Another crewman, Venschiff, is apparently driven mad by the Marker and attacks Schneider, only to be killed in the ensuing struggle. Copland, Maylech's assistant, leaves the Ishimura with a shard, planning to betray them to the Earth Government in exchange for a deal. But the worse is yet to come. As the Earth Defense Force and the Oracles, a group of unknown alignment, close in, the Necromorphs reawaken all over the ship. All the Magpies but Schneider are killed. The EDF squad is tricked by him to land in the cargo bay where they are all slaughtered by Necromophs. Schneider attempts to escape but the Oracles pursue him forcing them to a confrontation outside the ship. They are interrupted by a new Hive Mind but continue their confrontation inside after it is dispatched by the Oracles. Schneider escapes them through a steel portal while the Oracles are killed by Necromorphs. Schneider recovers their weapon and makes his way to their stealth shuttle. He notifies the Earth Government of the Ishimura's location before shocking out to an unknown destination. The Ishimura is left where it was, abandoned with its fate once again left unknown. The Sprawl thumb|300px|right|The Ishimura ResurfacesSometime between the three years Isaac Clarke has been on the Sprawl suffering from dementia, PTSD and amnesia. The USG Ishimura was docked in the Sprawl (It was hinted that it had been there the whole three years) The EarthGov had sent in teams to cover up all evidence of killings, Necromorphs (strangely they used plastic to cover it) . Late in Dead Space 2 Isaac renters the Ishimura hoping to use its gravity tethers to reconnect a space track. Isaac learns he must go to the engineering deck to fix the gravity centrifuge after this he is about to go to the Bridge but due to a blockade he must go through the medical deck. After many dismemberments he gets to the bridge via zero gravity inside one of the long and dark tram tunnels of the Ishimura. He uses the gravity tethers to pull the space track together, afterwards using an escape pod to return to the Sprawl. The Ishimura at this point is in a deplorable state, with blood covering deck walls and floors and lighting shut off, leaving many areas dark or bathed in emergency blue lighting. The tram system is largely destroyed and open to vacuum, especially between Medical and the Bridge. To escape the Ishimura, Isaac uses an escape pod, which is odd since all of them were jettisoned in Dead Space. Ship Sections Bridge The control room where the Ishimura is navigated and monitored. It consists of several sections: the Atrium, which is the bridge of the Ishimura; the Captain's Nest, which is Captain Matthius' personal observation area; Administration, where the ship's section leaders work; and Communications/External Access, where the Comm Array is located. The various sections are serviced by elevators accessed from the Atrium. Escape pods are located outside the Captain's Nest. The Captain's Nest itself is a restricted area and only officers holding the rank of Class 5 are allowed to enter. The bridge controls are largely holographic based. All around the bridge are various stations with holographic displays. When Isaac enters the main atrium, all the holographic displays read "System Failure." Crew Deck The residential areas of the ship's crew. A large relaxing area comprised mainly of sleeper bunks, the area also has a mess hall and a Zero-G basketball court. The crew deck has several small lounges, made in one room with some chairs and sofas, around a big projector, possibly some kind of television. The Executive Lounge and Executive Quarters(Captain and other leaders of the ship's homes) are located here, as is the Executive Shuttle. Engineering Deck The section of the Ishimura where various engineers work at maintaining the ship. This area is responsible for ensuring the correct function of the ship's ShockPoint Drive, gravity centrifuge, and the navigation rockets, as well as a continual lifting capacity of 525 trillion kilograms. This area is noted for being very dangerous as only Class 5 Engineers are allowed entry. Unlike other ship areas such as the Bridge and Medical, Engineering is very dark and industrial, often with pipes, conduits and exposed circuitry on the walls. It is divided into 3 primary areas: *'Gravity Centrifuge Access:' A large chamber that holds the Gravity Centrifuge, a machine that holds the ship in high orbit over a planet. *'Fuel Storage:' A large, very dark open area. It is separated into 2 sections by a mini-tram. This area feeds fuel into the engines. The area is rather high above the floor and is dominated by a large rotating ring of huge fuel cells and the main fuel line, and is by far the darkest area of the deck. *'Engine Room:' A large room that proudly displays the Ishimura's immense engines on the ceiling, several hundred feet in diameter. Flight Deck Location of the main hangars where shuttles would enter and leave the Ishimura. Contains a fully equipped departure/arrival lounge and has access to the cargo bay, allowing materials to be loaded into shuttles for transport. The Executive Shuttle Docking Bay connects to this, as well as the Cargo Bay. The Ishimura has multiple docking bays situated all over the ship for shuttles of various sizes, ranging from the massive main hangar bay where the Kellion crashes to smaller mining shuttle bays such as Docking Bay 17, where the Necromorph infection came on board the Ishimura. Hydroponics Deck The Ishimura's internal farm which produces the food needed to feed the many workers aboard the ship as well as providing a sustainable production of oxygen. It is typically maintained by horticulturists such as Elizabeth Cross, who monitored the production levels of the food. This Deck came under trouble when the Leviathan grew into food storage and began polluting the air. A massive area, it spans the entire top portion of the Ishimura's two cargo towers and is divided into 2 primary sections: the multi-level Vegetation Growth Chambers and the centrally located cylindrical Food Storage chamber. Directly before food storage is the air quality control and ventilation system, the Station features a large Hologram screen and controls that indicate air production, ventilation, and filtration systems. Maintenance Deck This Deck is where maintenance is performed on shuttles and maintenance shuttles are docked. These hangers can be manually opened in the event of their Control Rooms sustaining damage. The only notable location on this Deck is Shuttle Bay 47 which contained Maintenance Shuttle 23.Dead Space: Extraction: Chapter 8: In The Hearts Of Men Medical Deck The Medical Deck of the Ishimura contains various facilities including: Zero-G Therapy, an Intensive Care Unit, Imaging and Diagnostics, Biolab, Cryo-Lab, Chemical Lab, Morgue and also various research areas and offices of the scientists aboard the ship. The deck is serviced by two trams: one at the main entrance, and one at the Cryo Storage entrance. The Medical Deck is divided into three areas: Emergency Ward, Imaging and Diagnostics and the Research Wing. Dr. Kyne's office is located in the Research Wing's ground floor, while Dr. Mercer's is located in the Emergency Ward. Before the infestation, the medical deck was one of the brightest areas on the ship with virtually all lighting in the medical areas being a vivid white. In Dead Space 2 Isaac will once again have to traverse through here once the tram enocounters an obstruction. Mining Deck The heart of the Ishimura, this is where asteroids and planet fragments are broken apart and melted for valuable minerals. A 4-level deck, it is by far the largest deck on the Ishimura. Asteroids are brought in via an entrance on the third level and held in place by gravity tethers. Ore Storage Deck Directly below Hydroponics, this deck was where valuable ore extracted from operations on the Mining Deck was stored in large containment cylinders. In the game, it is the area the USM Valor crashes into, thus the entire deck is basically destroyed. The Ore Storage area is instead dominated by the wreck of the Valor. The deck is basically a gigantic room in zero gravity, although it is one of the smallest in the game. Subsections and Systems *'Asteroid Defense System' :A large fixed Array of Mass Drivers used on board many Planet Cracker-class ships. Its primary goal is to track and destroy asteroids automatically, preventing damaging collisions with the ship. However, in the event that a part of the ADS goes offline, a crew member will have to manually control an offline ADS Cannon. *'Computer Core' :The Computer Core is presumably the central processing area for the Ishimura's databanks. It allows remote locking and unlocking of various areas, remote disengaging of the ship's engines and access to the ship's library. Kendra Daniels barricades herself here after she and Hammond are attacked by a Leaper. *'Decontamination Chambers' :These chambers can be found throughout the ship protecting important areas such as the Gravity Centrifuge on the Engineering Deck. Their purpose is to cleanse workers of any bacteria and small debris that could contaminate these areas. *'Emergency Shuttles' :Due to the Ishimura's task as a mining ship and its frequent danger, the ship was equipped with a large compliment of escape shuttles which could be used to evacuate the ship in an emergency. The escape shuttles count apparently numbers at 50, with a capacity of 24 each in order to accommodate the ship's complement of 1,200. However, when the Necromorph infection reached the Ishimura, the entire complement was mysteriously jettisoned, with no one on board. By the time Isaac Clarke arrived, the only means of escaping the ship was a single damaged escape pod outside the bridge, which was promptly jettisoned by Hammond to remove a Slasher. The Ishimura also carried a small compliment of mining shuttles for transportation, but these were either destroyed or also remotely jettisoned by the time the USG Kellion arrives. *'Filtration Systems' :These systems transport all of the ship's the waste to the Water Treatment Facility. They are made up of large, interconnected chambers and pipes which run under various decks, such as Medical and Hydroponics. On the ceiling of these pipes are smaller pipes where new waste is dropped in and extraction fans used to remove the fumes making the air breathable. These pipes also contain elevated walkways with doors to allow access without the need to come in contact with the waste.Dead Space: Extraction: Chapter 6: Nowhere To Hide *'Quarantine System' :Important areas on the Ishimura are equipped with sensors that detect contaminants, such as Necromorphs. When one or more of these is detected, the area is locked down until the threat is removed. Both the Aegis VII Colony and the USM Valor also had a similar system suggesting that this is standard among structures and starships. *'Tram System' :Due to the Ishimura's size, a tram system has been built into the ship, allowing fast and easy access to each of the ship's sections. However, the system is single rail, so a single damaged tram will prevent travel throughout the ship. The floor of the tram's subway can be traversed, however. Trivia *It is possible that the USG Ishimura is named after Professor Hideki Ishimura, a small character in Dead Space: Martyr, he is an astrophysicis and the first man to survive a Necromorph attack. It is possible that due to his background in astrophysics that he goes on after the Necromorph attack to make advances in the field and possibly Planet Cracking, causing the ship to be named after him. *The literal Japanese meaning of Ishimura is Rock Village, appropriate for its purpose. Additionally, the presence of Japanese markings throughout the ship, most notably on the ship logo, suggest either heavy Japanese influence or direct Japanese-based construction. *'USG' stands for United Spacefaring GuildDead Space Facebook Account *Aegis VII would have been the Ishimura's 35th planet crack had it not been infected by the Necromorphs. *The Ishimura is seen in the Demo of Dead Space 2 when Isaac is attacked the second time by a ship. It's possible the Ishimura was recovered by EarthGov and secretly stored onboard the Sprawl. It's also possible that's where the infection came from as Necromorphs could have still been onboard. It is most likely the ishimura as presumably no other planet-cracker would have a gaping hole in it's side from the collision of The Valor. *Out of the entire crew, Gabe Weller is the only known survivor. *The Filtration Systems are where Chapter 6: Nowhere To Hide of Dead Space: Extraction took place and where the Urchin is encountered. *The Maintenance Deck is where Chapter 8: In The Hearts Of Men, the first part of Chapter 9: Escaping the Ishimura and Chapter 10: Secrets And Salvation of Dead Space: Extraction take place. *The size of the Ishimura is unknown, but it is possible that the ship is many tens of kilometers long, considering the size of the ship compared to other planets and asteroids *A Dead Space 2 Achievement "Operation!" can be achived if the Player "Snares the Shard with the Ishimura" http://www.easyxbox360achievements.com/latest-news/1141-dead-space-2-achievements. (This refers to capturing the detached EarthGov sector where the marker is being held.) *At the time of Nicole Brennans employment onboard the Ishimura, the ship was to be decomissioned the following year. *In Dead Space 2 while in the Ishimura in Chapter 10 many save points and power nodes from the first game can be found in the same locations in the parts of engineering, Med deck and the Bridge that you enter *In Dead Space 2 At the end of Chapter 10 when you use an Escape pod to get back to the Sprawl. Oddly enough, it is the pod that hammond launched in chapter 4 of the first game. *You also suffer hallucinations from the first game while on board the Ishimura. For example after exiting the gravity centrifuge a Drag Tentacle will grab Isaac slam him on the ground before disappearing, leaving Isaac standing up clutching his head in pain. Gallery File:Dead-space-0056.jpg|A closeup of the Ishimura's Bridge. File:Concept_ishimura_in_profile.jpg|The hull of the starship. File:Dead-space-20080729042426407_thumb_ign.jpg|Bottom view of the ship File:Loading_screen_01.jpg|The different parts of the USG Ishimura as shown in a loading screen. File:Join_the_team.jpg|A poster aboard the USG Ishimura. File:Remember the Ishimura.jpg|A memorial poster titled "Remember the Ishimura" aboard the Sprawl. IshimuraInDS2.png|A glimpse of the Ishimura in recent gameplay (USM Valor damage spotted on the left engine) File:ShipComparison.jpg|The USG Ishimura's size compared to the other ships in Dead Space. File:Ishimura Dead in Space.jpg|Ishimura dead in Space. File:Salvage - Poster04.jpg|The Ishimura in the art of Dead Space: Salvage. Sources *Dead Space *Dead Space: Downfall *Dead Space 2 References Ishimura